Take a trot through our collections for all things turkey

From American homes and gardens, volume 8, 1911. Courtesy Smithsonian Libraries.

Image via The Wild Turkey and its Hunting, Chapter 3, by Edward A. McIlhenny. (Courtesy Smithsonian Institution Libraries

One aim of this 3-cent 1956 postage stamp showing a wild turkey in flight in a forest was to emphasize the importance of wildlife conservation in America. (Courtesy National Postal Museum)

Seated photographic portrait of Theodora Octavia Dennis Cook, wife of Chief George Major Cook, wearing a woven feather neck ornament of wild turkey feathers, wild goose, and shellduck. Photograph taken in 1919 at Pamunkey Reservation; King William County; Va. Courtesy National Museum of the American Indian

The Marchbanks Calendar November, not dated, by Harry Cimino. Color woodcut. Courtesy Smithsonian American Art Museum

Mummified turkey collected in 1905 at the head of an ancient cave on the Tularosa River, near Catron Reserve, New Mexico. Courtesy National Museum of Natural History, Division of Birds.

Dinner Platter (Hayes service), 1880, porcelain, made by Haviland & Co., Limoges, France. Courtesy Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Patent drawing for the Hok-Lok, a Poultry Trussing Device by Henry J. Volk, inventor of the pop-up timer. Courtesy National Museum of American History, Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation.

Gaylax, Va., Old Fiddler’s Convention album, 1964, “Turkey in the Straw.” Courtesy Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

“Farmyard in the Snow, the Miller Place, Brookhaven, Long Island,” by James Preston, ca. 1920-1930, oil on canvas. Courtesy Smithsonian American Art Museum

Employees of the Northwestern Aeronautical Corporation in St. Paul, Minn, are shown holding holiday bagged turkeys given to them by the corporation in this 1945 photograph. Courtesy National Air and Space Museum.

Kiowa headdress made with black bristles from a turkey beard. Collected at a Kiowa And Comanche Reservation, Oklahoma / Indian Territory, May 1892. Courtesy National Museum of Natural History

Conway Family dinner Washington, D.C., Nov. 23, 1950. Family group seated and standing around dinner table laid with turkey and ham. Courtesy National Museum of American History, Archives Center, Scurlock Studio Records photograph, ca. 1905-1994.

Barcode data: Wild turkey “Meleagris gallopavo.” This image is a representative DNA barcode sequence, the centroid of all available sequences for the species “Meleagris gallopavo.” Courtesy National Museum of Natural History, Enclyclopedia of Life.

Photograph of wild turkeys in snow on the grounds of the National Zoological Park, Washington, D.C., 1910. Courtesy Smithsonian Institution Archives.

Coiled/hand built, modeled and painted pottery turkey figure made by Lucy M. Lewis (Lucy Lewis/Lucy Martin Lewis), Acoma Pueblo, Acoma Reservation; Cibola County; New Mexico. Courtesy National Museum of the American Indian

“Turkeys,” by James McNeill Whistler, etching on paper, 1879-1880. Courtesy Freer Gallery of Art

Skylab space food turkey and gravy. The food lockers and freezers aboard Skylab were stocked with a variety of canned, frozen, and dehydrated items for the three astronaut crews who occupied the space station in 1973 and 1974. Courtesy National Air and Space Museum

Denver Darling and his Texas Cowhands 78 RPM sound recording. Side A: Turkey In The Straw; Side B: The Devil and Mr. Hitler. Decca Records, 1942. Courtesy National Museum of American History

Illustration of a turkey hunt drawn by Squint Eyes, a Cheyenne artist and Plains Indian scout who drew numerous illustrations while being held prisoner at Fort Marion in Saint Augustine, Fla., from 1875-1878. Courtesy National Museum of Natural History, National Anthropological Archives

“America/Abundance” by Albert Laessle, 1934, bronze medal. Courtesy Smithsonian American Art Museum

Photo snapshot of Lee Krasner, Stella Pollock and Jackson Pollock carving a turkey, 1950 / unidentified photographer. Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner papers, circa 1905-1984. Courtesy Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

Turkey beard, purchased from Mark Tayac (Piscataway) in 2003. Courtesy National Museum of the American Indian

“A Happy Thanksgiving” postcard from the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, 1910. National Museum of American History Archives Center.

Turkey eggs, collected 1984 Perry County, Penn. Courtesy National Museum of American History

Cover of Antiques Magazine Nov. 1956 featuring two 18th-century carved and gilded wood turkeys from Italy in the museum’s collection. Artist unknown. (Note: it is believed that these figures represent the ocellated turkey, “Meleagris ocellata” from the Yucatán Peninsula, and not “Meleagris gallopavo.”) Courtesy Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum